Kfogg1991 Posted February 8, 2025 Posted February 8, 2025 Lmfao I'm guessing your on team DDP then. How did you honestly score the first fight? Personally I gave at least four rounds to Strickland obviously granting him the win but I'm curious how you guys went with it Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 8, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted February 8, 2025 (edited) 49 minutes ago, Kfogg1991 said: Personally I gave at least four rounds to Strickland I’m sorry but ? I’m gonna rewatch it tomorrow and I’ll do a review in here but just from my memory there’s no way Strickland won “at least four rounds”. And the “at least” obviously suggests you’re open to him winning a 5-0 clean sweep. I haven’t even seen the most diehard Strickland arselickers score it that wide for him. From what I remember it was really close and probably came down to how you scored one of the rounds in particular. I’m sure there’s a case for Strickland winning close but nobody won a shutout. And what’s the LMFAO about being on Team DDP? Strickland’s a boring tiresome cunt. I’m amazed anyone over the age of 15 who’s actually touched boob genuinely likes the cretin. Edited February 8, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members Carbomb Posted February 8, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 8, 2025 2 hours ago, Kfogg1991 said: Lmfao I'm guessing your on team DDP then. How did you honestly score the first fight? Personally I gave at least four rounds to Strickland obviously granting him the win but I'm curious how you guys went with it Not about what I scored the first fight for, dude. I just wouldn't pray for that abject cunt to win. He's a piece of shit. Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 8, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted February 8, 2025 (edited) Right then. This is gonna be a long read. Haven’t watched this back since it happened, for fairly obvious reasons. I don’t recall it being a great fight and who wants to rewatch Strickland fights anyway? I can barely stomach watching him the first time. Wanted to give this another look before tonight’s rematch though, to refresh my memory and see if I feel any differently about who won. From what I remember, I had DDP winning on my first viewing but it was close enough where I wasn’t 100% on that. They met in the main event of UFC 297 in Toronto last January. I remember feeling massively underwhelmed when it was announced but, like it or not, it was the fight that made sense at the time. Strickland was the champ having just upset and dethroned Israel Adesanya. And Du Plessis was coming off that shocking knockout win over Robert Whittaker. It looked so out of place to me, these two headlining a PPV with the title on the line. But their previous wins had completely flipped the division upside down. We’ve gone into it before but the buildup was ugly. They were fighting in the crowd at one event and the trash talk seemed to be about everything but their actual fighting skills. Strickland dished it out as usual, then was crying on podcasts when Du Plessis gave it back. By the time the fight came though they were oddly a little bit more respectful. Kind of. Sean Strickland©️vs Dricus Du Plessis - Middleweight Title UFC 297: Strickland vs Du Plessis January 20th 2024 Toronto, Ontario, Canada Commentary team for this is Jon Anik and the two DCs - Daniel Cormier and Dominick Cruz. Because Rogan loves MMA so much he can’t even be arsed to travel outside the US for fights anymore. OK, granted I can’t say I’d be bothered about travelling to see Strickland but Rogan couldn’t even be fucked to go to work for fights like Makhachev vs Volkanovski and Topuria vs Holloway! Oh well. He’s not missed. Referee for this is Marc Goddard. Surprisingly, Strickland and DDP touch gloves and we’re off… Round 1: We’re only 20 or so seconds in and nothing’s even happened yet and the crowd is chanting “Let’s go Strickland” already. Why? Ergh. You expect that shite in America but Canada? If it wasn’t for the fact they gave us Bret Hart I’d say fuck them. Strickland jabbing and teeping already and, I’ll be honest, it’s pretty much all I remember him doing. In this fight and most. Du Plessis is having trouble getting past the jab and finding Strickland’s chin. He’s throwing some leg kicks but Strickland’s mostly checking them. DDP’s pretty much constantly switching stances but landing very little from either. Du Plessis with the takedown. It goes nowhere though. He can’t keep Strickland down and they’re back up with about a minute to go. Du Plessis is a bit more aggressive now but still not landing anything significant. Strickland back on the jab and lands a right hand at the buzzer and that’s that. Definitely Strickland 10-9. Round 2: DDP being a bit more proactive to kick off this round. Again, he’s not landing much but at least now he’s not giving Strickland time to get the jab/teep shit going. He’s got Strickland thinking more defence than offence. Du Plessis is trying different stuff from leg kicks to body kicks to wild punches to spinning shit. It’s not pretty, it never is, but he’s keeping Strickland guessing. And he’s getting closer to tagging that chin all the time. Hard body shot from Du Plessis and Cruz rightly points out that that’s a good tactic for DDP because of Strickland’s upright/hands high stance. His body is wide open. Strickland still jabbing but Du Plessis is coming over the top with a looping right now. Left hook lands for DDP and he gets another brief takedown in the last minute. Strickland hits a nice switch and is back up quickly but Du Plessis is still putting the pressure on at the end. Definitely Du Plessis 10-9. Round 3: Du Plessis trying to carry on where he left off, he clips Strickland with a loopy left and a headkick. Neither landed flush but they were close. Funny but those “let’s go Strickland” chants seem to have stopped now. Again, this isn’t technically pretty from DDP but he’s constantly mixing shit up, changing stance, throwing random stuff all the time and, while Strickland’s defending well, he’s being forced on the back foot and can’t get much going at all now. Hard to throw jabs and teeps when you’re being crowded and smothered by someone who’s always closing that distance you need to get those strikes off. He can’t settle. Hard body kick from Dricus. Strickland still popping the jab out when he can but it’s just one here and there at this point. Approaching the last minute and Strickland is having a tad more success with the jabs but nothing major. Dricus with a spinning back kick to the body which just glances off Strickland’s side. Strickland lands a solid left on the buzzer and that’s three rounds in the books. Closer than the second but it’s another Du Plessis 10-9. I’ve seen Strickland fans swear up and down that he bossed this round. Seriously, watch it and tell me how he won the round. Even when he goes back to the corner after, the first thing his head coach Eric Nicksick says to him is “I didn’t like that round”. Du Plessis is visibly marked up and swollen around the eyes and I’m guessing that’s all Strickland fans are looking at. But I’ve said it a million times, just looking at who’s more bruised up is a shit and lazy way to judge a round/fight. Facial damage can happen from one exchange, it’s not something you just write the whole round off for or score the whole fight on. Idiots. Anyway, we’re going into the championship rounds. And Anik has mentioned a few times that this’ll be the first time Du Plessis has ever seen a fourth round in his career. Round 4: Seems to be a little bit more urgency from both coming out for this round. Strickland’s - you guessed it - immediately trying to get the jab working for him again and Du Plessis is his usual goofy self and all over the place. Du Plessis connects and Strickland’s noticeably blinking after that one. And within a few seconds you see why as blood starts pissing from his left eye. Have it. He keeps wiping it with his hand and blinking, it’s clearly bothering him and effecting his vision but he actually lands a couple of decent shots just after. He’s started winging an ugly big sloppy overhand right now. Before the cut his offence was like 80% jabs and 20% teep kicks. So the blood has definitely given him the kick up the arse to do a bit more. Ha ? this is probably the one bit of the fight I’ve seen the most since it happened. The old duck the punch, headbutt the hip has been gif’d and clipped a lot on social media. Classic Du Plessis. He’s keeping the pressure on though. Attacking the head, body and the lead leg. Whereas, genuinely, if Strickland can’t jab or teep you he looks legitimately lost and out of ideas. Another takedown again for DDP but Strickland does a good job of immediately working his way back to his feet. I’ll give him that, Strickland does have good defensive wrestling. He’s not easy to take down but even when a big strong lump like Du Plessis is able to get the takedown, he can’t hold him there long enough to advance position or do any real damage. Strickland’s anti-wrestling game reminds me a lot of Bisping’s years ago. He might not be able to stuff every takedown but even if you put him on the mat he’ll never just accept the position and he can usually pop back up fairly quickly. Still, this has been a rough round for Strickland. Du Plessis is hitting him with some cleaner shots now and Strickland can’t see them coming due to the blood. Another big takedown and there’s a brief moment where Strickland finally looks a bit dejected. To his credit though, he gets back up again. Dricus drags him back down with a bit of a shit waistlock/poor man’s German suplexy thing. Du Plessis lets him go and they’re back on the feet for the last minute. Strickland with a sloppy one-two but he’s mostly on the back foot again just trying to avoid DDP’s weird offence in the final seconds. Du Plessis 10-9. Clearest round of the fight. If you want to get an idea of where the Strickland corner is at mentally before the last round and where they see the trajectory of this fight going, Nicksick’s having to bring up Strickland’s childhood in a desperate attempt to get something out of him. “We’re fighting for that kid inside of us”. They can feel it slipping away and Strickland’s face says it all. In contrast, Du Plessis has a beaming grin on his face and he’s beating his chest. Round 5: Strickand jabbing again. I get that the jab is underutilised in MMA and it’s definitely an effective weapon but Jesus Christ man. Is that all he’s got? He’s like a kid playing a video game who’s learned only one move and just spams the life out of it because it’s all he knows. And his fans actually have to pretend they enjoy this shit just because they like his ‘edgy’ personality. It’s so pathetic. He’s just a striking version of Jake Shields. Not completely without skill but he’s a one trick pony and it’s dull as shit to watch. Seriously, watch him whenever he throws his right hand. It’s dogshit. It’s like he never learned anything beyond the jab and doesn’t know how to throw the right hand at all. Oh and what a surprise. Now the crowd are chanting “DDP, DDP, DDP”. Glory hunting, bandwagon jumping twats. Dricus having a good first minute or so here but Strickland’s started stuffing his takedowns now. Stiff right jab from Du Plessis lands right on that damaged eye and Strickland’s wincing a bit after that one. He’s back jabbing again though. Some kicks from DDP and Strickland’s desperately lobbing that Hail Mary overhand right again hoping it lands. There it is. The lethal right hand of Sean Strickland ? They both swing like wallies as the final seconds tick away and, unless my ears were playing tricks on me, Cruz actually says “awesome technical battle from these champions”. HA! The last 15 or so seconds are pure comedy as they both swing wildly and assault nothing but air with every ugly and uncoordinated strike. It’s over. And I’m giving Strickland the edge in that one. Strickland 10-9. So I’ve got it 48-47 for Du Plessis overall. Winner - Dricus Du Plessis by split decision. Absolutely zero controversy. The talk of this being a robbery is completely manufactured bullshit from Strickland fans, most of which probably don’t even watch MMA unless he’s on. I’d genuinely love to see any Strickland fan sit down on camera, watch this fight and score it round by round and explain how he won on actual rounds and judging criteria instead of just vibes and biased fanboyism. Try and find me 3 rounds of this which he clearly won. He definitely took the first round and I think he won the fifth. Where’s the other round (or rounds if you’re Kfogg) that he won which would give him the decision? Don’t get me wrong, if you really wanted to then maybe you could convince yourself he won one more round. The second was kind of uneventful. But while Du Plessis wasn’t landing a ton, his offence was pretty much the only thing that was happening in that round. An occasional Strickland jab doesn’t make that round his. The third was kind of close, I guess, but even Nicksick thought they lost that one. And there’s zero case for Strickland winning the fourth round. Even if you had Strickland winning, someone explain to me how he got “robbed”. It’s purely coming from people who wanted him to win because of his ‘hilarious’ antics, so they were gonna cry robbery no matter what. I’ve got no real issue with someone thinking Strickland edged it, I strongly disagree but whatever. Anyone who thinks this was a robbery or a clear win for Strickland though, I’m sorry but you either just don’t have a clue how to score fights or you’re so blinded as a Strickland fanboy (again, why?) that you can’t be objective. It didn’t help that Dana immediately came out after the fight telling the media he thought Strickland won and trotted out that brain dead, outdated shite about “I think a challenger should really have to TAKE it from the champion”. What does that even mean when it comes to scoring round by round? The other thing I keep seeing is twats posting this pic… …and going ‘How did he win? Look at his face!’ Again, clueless berks who don’t know what they’re talking about. If you score fights based solely on who’s more marked up facially after the fight, your opinions on scoring fights are worthless going forward. Like I said, damage like that can come from one round or even one exchange in a 5 round, 25 minute fight. Are we supposed to just dismiss everything else that happens and just go by who’s more bruised at the end? It’s the combat sports equivalent of buying a book, reading none of it and only looking at the pictures and basing your opinion off that. It’s laziness and bollocks from people who can’t think for themselves and base their scoring of fights entirely on; 1) Who they wanted to win going in. 2) The narrative the commentators put across. And/or 3) whose face looks more punchy and hurty at the post-fight press conference. Get out and shit off with that. For what it’s worth, Strickland himself wasn’t even kicking off about the decision initially. He was clapping when Du Plessis was announced the winner and they were pretty friendly in the post-fight interviews. Didn’t take long for Strickland to change his tune though. No doubt he saw all the fools crying robbery and Dana saying he had him winning and he’s ran with that now. I don’t even blame him, it’s worked in getting him the rematch. But the levels of cope I was reading and seeing after he lost this one was both hilarious and unhinged like almost nothing I’d ever seen from any other fanbase. Then it pivoted to them trying to spin it as if this was some great and crazy fight and Strickland being some badass who’s known for wars. It was pure madness and delusion. Here we go then. The rematch. Nice bit of staph on Strickland’s arm there, which will no doubt become the excuse if he loses again tonight. You know it’s coming. No surprises who I’m rooting for. And more than anything I hope that DDP not only wins but wins decisively this time with a big finish. Preferably a submission so Strickland and his fans can’t call it a fluke or robbery but they’ll just run with the staph thing now anyway. Last thing we need is another close decision. It’s probably not gonna be very good. This first fight wasn’t any better than I remembered it. Strickland rarely has a watchable fight with anyone and him and DDP just seems like an oil and water combination. As for who I think will win, I’ll admit I’m not confident either way. I think Du Plessis has enough about him to get it done though. Strickland’s strengths pretty much all lie in his defence. Good defensive wrestling, not particularly easy to land punches on etc. There’s not much he can really change or do differently here. He’s gonna be jabbing, he’s gonna be teeping, he’s gonna be throwing that horrid overhand arm punch and he’s gonna be standing upright like a fucking meerkat while the commentators jizz over his jab and bang on about the ‘Philly shell’ all night. I’d like to see Dricus go to the body more but apart from that I think he can mostly do what he did last time. He started slow last time but was beginning to find answers as early as the second round. If he can get going a bit sooner this time and just constantly pressure and smother Strickland’s work and keep mixing his attacks up, I think he goes 2-0. Like I said, I’d love to see a submission but watching the first fight back, I forgot how difficult Strickland was for him to keep down. A sub might be hard to come by but we’ll see. In closing, yeah, I’m sorry @Kfogg1991 but “at least four rounds to Strickland”? Edited February 8, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 8, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted February 8, 2025 Full card, start times and face-offs… Few doubts are creeping in on the co-main now it’s nearly here but I’m sticking with Suarez to dethrone Zhang. Don’t really have any feelings on anything else but hopefully the undercard throws up a few pleasant surprises. Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 8, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 8, 2025 I can't unsee it Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 9, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted February 9, 2025 DDP fans/Strickland haters to Strickland fans this fine morning… Quote
Kfogg1991 Posted February 9, 2025 Posted February 9, 2025 Wow that was a clean sweep by DDP so impressed the shot of Strickland putting his nose back in place is fucking awesome. Co main was dominant too Not watched any other fights yet Onto the next Quote
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted February 9, 2025 Author Paid Members Posted February 9, 2025 (edited) Shite card really. Well, the main card anyway. The prelims were actually quite fun. This main card though, it looked bad going in and they weren’t even able to surpass those low expectations. Rotten. Only saving grace was the results… Yes. Du Plessis goes 2-0, fuck Strickland. DDP didn’t get the finish, which was disappointing, and it wasn’t a good fight to watch, but he won this one a lot more clearly than the first fight. To the point even Strickland fans can’t really say much. This was clear cut. I had DDP winning at least four rounds, and to be honest, possibly 5-0. Feel like there was one round which maybe Strickland edged but I can’t remember which now. It doesn’t matter though, does it? Whether you give him a round or fuck all, he absolutely, categorically, clearly lost this fight. I love that Strickland was banging on in the buildup about “making a pact” to just “stand up and strike like men” and not do any of that “gay wrestling shit”. So Du Plessis stands with him for almost the entire 25 minutes and still beats him pretty much every round anyway. For all Strickland’s bullshit and bluster about “going to war” and being “robbed” last time, he just went out and did the same thing he always does. Jabbing and teeping and looking flustered every time Du Plessis got in his space. Even when Nicksick was on Strickland’s case about needing to do more and not let rounds slip away, Strickland just kept going with the usual jab/teep bollocks. I genuinely don’t think he can fight any other way. I don’t think there’s anything else in the locker. Looking back, Adesanya losing to this goof is even more baffling. It’s like he just can’t handle opponents constantly coming forward at him and that’s how Strickland beat him. With a guy like Du Plessis, that’s not gonna work. When Strickland is the one being forced on the back foot, he doesn’t seem to know what to do. This really seemed to break him as well. Seems like his spirit got broken along with his nose. It’s not like he was doing a great deal before that, but once DDP cracked his nose in the fourth round, pretty much all Strickland did was backpedal from that point on. “Let’s go to war”. Then his nose got popped and suddenly he wanted a ceasefire ? I’ve seen all kinds of “Sean never got out of second gear” comments today but this is how he always fights. He’s simply not the blood and guts, bite down on the mouthpiece, slugfest having scrapper he talks himself up as and he never was that guy. He’s got his strengths like any other fighter but how he’s managed to fool so many people into thinking he’s some killer is hilarious to me. This DDP vs Alex Pereira thing can piss off. I’ve got very little interest in that. It’s DDP vs Khamzat next. Or at least it should be. Dana’s been saying Khamzat’s next in line and, while I know he chats a lot of shite, we can probably believe him when it comes to Khamzat. He’s always had a hard on for him and wanted him in the title picture. Now it can happen. It’s 100% the fight to make and I love the idea of it. There’s always the chance Khamzat steamrolls him but DDP has such a weird and silly style and that combined with his physical strength and his durability makes that fight such a fascinating one to me. Seen DDP suggesting an Imavov vs Borralho #1 contenders match as well and that does make sense while DDP vs Khamzat plays out. Although, with Khamzat’s track record of pulling out of fights and missing weight, it might be an idea to keep one of those guys free as the official backup. You know, just in case. Can’t count your chickens when it comes to Khamzat. Zhang Weili vs Tatiana Suarez. Yeah, I got this all wrong. Not that I was giving Zhang no chance or counting her out, I just had this gut feeling ever since this fight was announced that Suarez was gonna give her major problems with the wrestling. As it turned out, other than a bit of success and top control in the first half of the first round, Suarez had pretty much fuck all for Zhang. The best. I’ve got to stop doubting her. At 35, she continues to prove just how far ahead of the rest of the pack at Strawweight she really is. I’m sure Suarez’s inactivity played some part but I don’t think it was a deciding factor. I really thought her wrestling would give Zhang fits based on some of Zhang’s issues there in the past. I guess I had it in my head that, if there was a style to beat her, a legit wrestler might be it and Suarez fit that description. She just couldn’t get it going though and that’s a credit to Zhang. Seemed like every time Suarez would commit to a takedown, Zhang would wind up in the advantageous position. I thought there’d be a bit more of a size difference in Suarez’s favour as well, to be honest, but Zhang looked strong and physical enough in the clinch and scrambles to deal with anything thrown at her. There were still moments here when Zhang would get sloppy but Suarez either never had the skills or conditioning to capitalise on it. Dominant win for Zhang over what I, and many, felt was gonna be her toughest title defence since the Namajunas losses. I wasn’t the only one either. Apparently, Zhang was the betting underdog for this fight, which is a bit surprising. Not sure what’s left for her at Strawweight. Honestly, looking at the rankings, she’s pretty much cleaned out the division. There’s Virna Jandiroba, she’s got a fight with Yan Xiaonan coming up in April. She’d be a fresh fight for Zhang and I’d like to see her get a shot but it’s not a fight that we really need to see. The only other fresh challenger would be Mackenzie Dern but, again, doesn’t really feel necessary and would most likely be a complete squash match. Seen a lot of talk about Zhang moving up to Flyweight to do the champ vs champ fight with Valentina Shevchenko. It’s a fight I was predicting/hoping we’d see this year but I thought Suarez beating Zhang would be the path to it happening. This is even better though because the champ vs champ thing just makes it bigger. Dana seemed up for it talking to the media after so maybe it’s gonna happen. Would be harsh on Manon Fiorot who seemed to have the title shot against Shevchenko in the bag before last night but that’s the game. And who would really rather see Shevchenko vs Fiorot over Shevchenko vs Zhang? It’s time. Zhang’s done all she can do at Strawweight and she’s 35 years old. If she was ever gonna try to become a two weight champion, get it on now before it’s too late. Tallison Teixeira mercifully kept it short and sweet, bashing up Justin Tafa in just 35 seconds. Loved that elbow. Seen a few claims of an early stoppage but I was fine with it. Tafa took a hard knee to the body just before the elbow, then went down and just curled up. He wasn’t moving or attempting to get up or tie up or grapple. Nothing. Just covering up. With guys this big and powerful, refs have to be on the ball and everything about Tafa’s body language said he was done. Seeing this made me wish they kept Robelis Despaigne around, even just for a bit longer. He wasn’t great in MMA but Despaigne vs Teixeira would’ve been quite the sight to see. Crute vs Bellato was alright. First round was fun. It still had no business on a PPV main card but whatever. No real opinion on the draw outcome. I didn’t pay close enough attention to scoring it to agree or disagree with the draw. Guess they might as well just run it back, not like there’s anything else going on for either. Wasn’t a fan of Matthews vs Prado and, again, this opening a PPV main card in 2025 was the shits. Matthews did his thing, he looked OK, I guess. But despite Prado’s toughness and willingness to throw down, he looks too small for 170. I know they made a lot of the weight cut to 155 being rough on him and I get that. But he’s gonna struggle at 170 with his frame. If you’re losing to Jake Matthews, your future in the division is pretty bleak, isn’t it? He’s still young but he might be one of those fighters who’s kind of in no man’s land weight class wise. Too stocky to go down in weight but too short for where he’s at. Gabriel Santos vs Jack Jenkins was entertaining as expected. Neither have bored me yet so I had high hopes for this and they didn’t disappoint. I like both but I was happy to see Santos get the win and finish here. To come back from being dropped by the headkick early on to catching Jenkins in a triangle seconds later was a cool sequence. Then to eventually stun Jenkins with that front kick to the gob later in the fight and sink the choke in. Really good stuff. Happy to see Santos finally on the right track. Think I mentioned in the opening post that I felt like his early results in the UFC really didn’t do him justice or tell the whole story. I’m sure I had him winning the Lerone Murphy fight for example. He’s better than those first couple of UFC fight results suggested and I think he’s finally showing that now. Tom Nolan vs Slava Claus was pretty fun. Slav’s tough as shit and always dangerous when he’s on his feet but Nolan just proved to be the more well rounded of the two and his chin held up to some of Slav’s punches better than I thought it would. And Nolan grappled just enough to keep him guessing and put rounds in the bank. Good fight for Nolan at this stage of his career. Got 15 minutes in against a durable guy who wouldn’t go away easily and he mixed it up and got the win. He’s obviously got a lot of work to do but he’s only 24 so he’s got some time. Wang Cong got back to winning ways. Hopefully she can keep it going and that Fernandes loss turns out to be just a blip because the Flyweight division could do with some new blood in the rankings. I admit I didn’t watch this fight closely but from what I saw Cong looked pretty sharp and Brasil seemed to have little for her. Quite enjoyed the Diet Topuria vs Slickness Thicknesse fight. Wasn’t anything mind blowing but I thought Thicknesse gave a decent account of himself considering the short notice and Topuria looked good considering his long spells of inactivity. This was pretty sweet as well. Kurt Angle would be proud of that one. Jury’s out on these two until we see more of them against opposition we’re more familiar with. I saw a lot of talk going in about Topuria’s previous opponents being absolute scrubs who mostly had losing records. So this was, on paper, a step up and probably his toughest test yet. Especially coming off a near 2 year layoff. So not bad all things considered. We’ll see what the future holds. At 135, there’s not many warm up fights so we’ll find out what these two are about soon enough. Rongzhu vs Kody Steele was a barmy scrap. A real unexpected banger. Not like I thought it would be bad, I just didn’t have any opinions or expectations for it. Was a wild one though. As fun as it was to watch, I kind of got Jorge Gurgel vibes from Steele here. I kept hearing about his grappling going in but he seemed more than happy to just slug it out here. He definitely had his moments but ultimately Rongzhu got the better of it at crucial times and ended up winning on points. You wonder if Steele could’ve made this look much different had he gone more the grappling route or at least threatened more with it to open up opportunities on the feet. Regardless, what a fight. Definitely FOTN for me and I’m glad to see they got the bonus. Jonathan Micallef looked good in his debut. Didn’t get a finish but put a proper beating on Kevin Jousset and kicked the absolute shit out of his body. Can’t remember the last time I saw a fighter’s ribs as red raw as that. You’re probably going way back to when Keith Jardine battered Chuck Liddell’s ribs in with kicks. Looking forward to seeing more from Micallef after this performance. Quillan Salkilld kicked off the night, and his UFC career, with a bang. 19 second TKO in your UFC debut? Not bad. It wasn’t his fault but I did think the stoppage was premature though. The ref really didn’t give Jubli a chance to even try to recover or try to get up or fight out of the position. He was even reaching for the legs when the ref jumped in. He still looked like he was in the fight. Bisping and DC going on about ‘well before he grabbed the leg he was just covering up’ but we’re talking about him covering up for literally a second or two before going for what looked like an attempt at a takedown. Wasn’t like he just turtled up and waited to be saved. He never stopped moving. Not even like I rate Jubli but this was a harsh stoppage in my opinion. Yeah, very much a card of two halves. If you missed the main card, you really didn’t miss much. But it was nice to see Zhang continue to add to her legacy and it’s always satisfying to see an absolute helmet like Strickland get shut down. The prelims were where the best stuff was on this one though. And really, if you saw Rongzhu vs Steele, you saw all you needed to. Edited February 9, 2025 by wandshogun09 Quote
sirdobbo89 Posted February 10, 2025 Posted February 10, 2025 I think I'm essentially a UFC casual at this point. I've gone from never missing a single event to skipping most Fight Nights and skimming the PPV's. I have every intention to at least watch the fight night main events, and then it gets to Wednesday and I'm just like 'ah might as well just spoiler myself now as I'll never go back and watch it'. I don't know of it's a combination of most new fighters coming from DWCS which I don't watch, or there being just too many shows now, or a lot of the old guard finishing up and retiring but my fandom is definitely dwindling. I couldn't even be arsed skimming the prelims this time round, which looking at the above looks like I've missed some decent stuff. Like, perfect example. Suarez. She's in a title fight, undefeated and the betting favourite. Couldn't tell you I've ever seen her fight before watching this show. I might have, can't remember it though without googling her record. But regardless, it was my most anticipated fight on the card as Zhang is a favourite of mine and I wanted to see how good Suarez was being the favourite. Suarez looked alright, for a round. Thought we were going to see a 25 minute wrestling clinic after round one, and then Suarez got tired and Zhang dominated. A joy to watch and she absolutely nailed the babyface promo of the night. She's just so genuine. I really don't want to see the Valentina fight because I'm big fans of both and don't want to see one of them lose. I don't know enough about Zhang's division and who's left but come on, build up a mega heel for Zhang to pummel. Give me what I want, dammit. It was easy back in the day rooting for Zhang against Joanna as Jędrzejczyk couldn't help herself but do heelish things all the chuffing time. Build me a monster heel instead of all this going up going down division switching all the time. I know to most Strickland fits the heel category, but I didn't really feel like cheering on either guy, which is probably more down to me not watching any buildup stuff. Essentially, it just looked like Strickland didn't really try anything different and just attempted to fight in the very same way he did in the first fight, and he paid for it. Fair play to Du Plessis. Quote
Kfogg1991 Posted February 10, 2025 Posted February 10, 2025 Honestly I understand what you're saying there and I've found myself in the same place right now anyway. I hadn't missed a show at all for about three years but since working like I now work which consists of heavy weekends with shows and live events I've just not been able to watch live until stupid o'clock because I have to be in work at midday on Sundays. I managed to watch the last three fights on the Saudi show and that was on at a fantastic time for us here. I'm currently sat in the hospital waiting for my fiance she's having a endoscopy so I'm sat watching the prelims from this weekend but I get where your coming from I haven't been as diehard but I do think it will swap and change depending on how good the card is it's a unfortunate situation for us in the UK because we have such a brutal process if we watch live events. I can't wait for 313 though that main and co main just scream bangers Quote
Moderators neil Posted February 10, 2025 Moderators Posted February 10, 2025 Wand's write-up on DDP/Strickland was more fun than any Strickland flight I've watched Quote
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted February 10, 2025 Paid Members Posted February 10, 2025 This card definitely peaked with the Fight Pass prelims, I thought we were in for one of those unexpected special nights after that. It dwindled though, but I got the results I wanted so wasn't too pissed about it. Quote
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted February 10, 2025 Posted February 10, 2025 On 2/10/2025 at 5:01 AM, wandshogun09 said: Shite card really. Well, the main card anyway. The prelims were actually quite fun. This main card though, it looked bad going in and they weren’t even able to surpass those low expectations. Rotten. Only saving grace was the results… Yeah, very much a card of two halves. If you missed the main card, you really didn’t miss much. But it was nice to see Zhang continue to add to her legacy and it’s always satisfying to see an absolute helmet like Strickland get shut down. The prelims were where the best stuff was on this one though. And really, if you saw Rongzhu vs Steele, you saw all you needed to. I watched the prelims but haven't yet circled back to the main PPV card. Seems like it's not worth the bother. It wasn't worth the $70 AUD on paper, or the effort of going to the pub to watch it (where I likely would've spent more than $70 on food and beers knowing me). Used to be so many options to watch a free live stream online but they seem to have really cracked down on it. At least I can still go to a place where you can "watch wrestling" after the fact. I enjoyed the prelims though. The other Topuria actually looked pretty good, and surprisingly strong given the weight class. I was surprised that he shrugged off Thicknesse's attempts to grapple with such ease. And the Fight Pass prelims were especially brutal, I daresay Rong Zhu and Kody Stelle will get higher billings in their next fight! Quote
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